Turkish municipalities to correspond in Kurdish

Fri, 26/09/2008 - 21:44 — Admin

The municipalities from Turkey's pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) are preparing to exchange official letters in Kurdish as part of a campaign calling for the right to education in mother language in the Turkish Constitution, a Turkish newspaper reported on Friday.

The mayors of towns in eastern Turkey said they would start to correspond in Kurdish after completing the technical deficiencies, Milliyet reported, citing Firat news agency.

The mayors said they would also make announcements to the public in Kurdish.

"We will make official correspondence in Kurdish, if it is possible. We will try to make public announcements in Kurdish, even if it is not allowed," Gulcihan Simsek, the mayor of Bostanici district of Van, said.

Mukaddes Kubilay, the mayor of Dogubeyazit district of Agri, however, said the municipality has already started to make some public announcements in Kurdish.

The DTP is currently organizing several activities as part of its campaign for the constitutional amendment, including speeches in parliament to being delivered in Kurdish by party MPs and symbolic Kurdish lessons in the streets.